index.qmd

---
title: "Ryan Safner"
about:
    id: hero-heading # having a written section below the two-columns format
    template: trestles
    image: me2023.jpg
    links:
      - icon: twitter
        href: https://twitter.com/ryansafner
      - icon: linkedin
        href: https://linkedin.com/in/ryansafner
      - icon: envelope
        href: mailto:ryansafner@gmail.com
      - icon: github
        href: https://github.com/ryansafner
      - icon: book
        href: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=GDbo0gsAAAAJ&hl=en
---

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:::{#hero-heading} 

I am an Economist at the [U.S. Copyright Office](https://copyright.gov), conducting research on economic implications of copyright-relevant issues (such as generative AI).

Previously, I was Associate Professor of Economics at [Hood College](https://www.hood.edu/academics/departments/george-b-delaplaine-jr-school-business), and I have taught 17 different economics courses over the last 10 years. I am a firm believer of providing public goods & promoting open source materials, so you can find all course materials on my custom [course websites](teaching.qmd).
 
My personal research agenda explores the political economy of innovation, technological growth, and intellectual property using the tools of [new institutional economics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_institutional_economics), [public choice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_choice), and [market process economics](http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/AustrianSchoolofEconomics.html). I blog about these issues in a non-technical way at [Increasing Returns](https://increasingreturns.substack.com).

I am a passionate user of [*R*](https://www.r-project.org/) for data analysis, and [Quarto](https://quarto.org/) and [GitHub](https://github.com) for writing reproducible research, using version control, and managing my workflow. I blog [here](/blog.html) about using these tools in my research & teaching as well as learning how to use new tools and software.

<!--## Education

- Ph.D, Economics, 2015 (George Mason University)
- M.A., Economics, 2013 (George Mason University)
- B.A., Economics, 2011 (University of Connecticut)

## Interests

- Innovation
- Intellectual Property
- Economic Growth
- Data Analysis with R

## Skills

- R, tidyverse, tidymodels, Stata, SQL, Git, LaTeX, Excel, Markdown, Quarto -->

:::

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Disclaimer: All opinions expressed on this website are my own and do not represent the views or policies of the U.S. Copyright Office or any other institution.